Jan's LX90 Blog

For many years now I've been telling people that astronomy is a hobby of mine. When I say something like that, it fails to pass my interest along to the person being told. They get the impression that astronomy is like sewing, or collecting dolls, or some other non-adventurous "hobby".

A few weeks ago, I went to the wake of a friend's father.  Although it being a not-so-happy affair, there were reunions of a few of us that had lost track of each other for a decade or two. One of those persons approached me, asking a simple question that no others nearby understood:

"Are you Jan Miller, the one who went through the Gunbarrel?"

Yep, that was me. All of a sudden, I was reminded of a past "hobby" , and at the same time I suddenly realized what constituted a passion - rather than a hobby.

The "Gunbarrel" is a 50 foot long, roughly 14 inch diameter fissure deep in the solid rock of Knox Cave, roughly 50 miles from where I live. In my freshman year of college I was introduced to "caving"  by some newly met friends, repleat with all the tools and techniques of rock climbers and survivalists. It was only two caves after I started the hobby that I was introduced to the gunbarrel. To get to the treasures on the other side of the cave complex, you *had* to pass through the Gunbarrel.  It's a daunting passage, both physically and mentally.

To pass through required that your arms be above your head with your toes pointed behind you. To make matters worse, your carbide lamp needed to be extinguished (a helmet barely fit, much less at the angles for a carbide lamp to keep dripping properly) and you had to resort to a small handheld or strapped-to-the-wrist flashlight. You advanced through the gunbarrel by pushing your helmet ahead of you, dragging your gear behind you, and propelling yourself by the fingertips and toes, a couple inches at a time. A claustrophobic and physicaly draining experience - which had to be repeated a second time to exit the cave! Cavers love to name places in caves with descriptive names - The Gunbarrel, the Mud Pits, the lemon squeeze, pretzel connection, Storm drain or Uterus. My prize that day was to be the Alabaster Room.

My reward only came after some slight climbs and more crawling and squeezing - through a muddy, tangled maze of upper and lower tunnels, many of which ended abruptly. I finally arrived at a place that probably a few hundred living people have ever laid their eyes upon. I was rewarded for my hard work and mental stability with the sight of the Alabaster room - a memory I'd have for the rest of my life.

My passage/initiation through the gunbarrel was many years ago. I've learned that  they've recently opened (discovered by digging out) an alternate path, a "bypass". Those persons  physically or mentally unable to pass through the Gunbarrel can still get the reward of seeing what's beyond. For those that take the easy route, it's much like gazing at an image from the Hubble. Wonderful yes, but you didn't have to work as hard to get there.

The Gunbarrel reminded me of astronomy. We go through so much trouble for things that most people wouldn't bother with. We suffer through cold nights alone outdoors, mosquitos, the occasional skunk or racoon. We spend hours studying charts, memorizing archaic names of stars. We'll wait an extra two hours in the cold outdoors to watch one of the Galilean satellites emerge from Jupiter's shadow.  We learn to function at our best with only a few hours sleep a day.

Most people are more than happy to look at a picture from the Hubble with just a fleeting glance. We don't partake in just a hobby. Astronomy is a passion, hard work and commitment that results in ourselves being some of the few people to ever gaze upon objects and distant worlds in real time. We gaze at these wonders and contemplate the universe, the small section of which we're feasting upon with our eyes. It  was much like this sitting in the Alabaster room - in the dark,  cold, wet and dirty, and exhausted - but having the knowledge that only a few people had ever made it as far as you. You could sit there for hours contemplating the hydro-geologic conditions that created the wonderful, pure white calcium deposits over tens or hundreds of thousands of years.

So from now on when someone asks, Astronomy is referred to as a passion of mine, not a hobby.

Here are some interesting pictures of Knox Cave I found when my past was revisited. So much has changed since then. A ladder? Geeez, how Hubble-like.   :o)

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